This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-261425 filed on Aug. 30, 2001.
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle accessory system utilizing a region-based automatic operation switching method.
In an in-vehicle audio and navigation system, video from a TV tuner, a VCR and a DVD player are displayed on a display. Because the video displayed on the display while a vehicle is in operation may disturb a driver, some countries have regulations on displaying video.
In the United States, each State has different regulations. The in-vehicle audio and navigation system needs to be configured differently for each State so that it complies with the regulations. This makes it difficult to reduce the cost of the system. Moreover, if a vehicle is purchased in a State where the regulations are not instituted and driven in a State where regulations are instituted, the driver may violate the regulations. The same situation may occur in Europe when driving into another country.
In DVD systems, DVD players contain region codes. Individual DVDs also contain region codes. The DVD player region code must match the DVD region code in order for the DVD system to function properly. Within a DVD player, the region code is preset by an external device according to a particular region in which a vehicle will be used. This makes it difficult to reduce the cost of the system.
Moreover, different television systems are used in European countries. For each country, setting a video standard corresponding to its television system and channel frequencies in TV tuners is required. The user of the system may not be able to watch TV without resetting the video standard and channel frequencies after crossing a border.
The present invention therefore has an objective to provide an in-vehicle accessory system that automatically sets its functions based on a region in which the vehicle is located.
The present invention has another objective to provide a method for automatically setting the functions of the in-vehicle accessory system based on the region.
The in-vehicle accessory system of the present invention includes a current position search device, a region determination device, a setting information retrieval device and a function setting device. The current position search device searches a current position of a vehicle and the region determination device determines a region in which the searched position is located. The setting information retrieval device retrieves setting information corresponding to the determined region. The function setting device sets functions of the system based on the retrieved information. With this configuration, the system automatically resets its functions when the vehicle enters into a different region in which different function setting is required.